Chihayafuru

I’m primarily an anime watcher. For the lack of a proper word, let’s use the word “watcher” for now. To further elaborate, I’m more inclined to watch the anime of any titles as long as there’s an anime version of it. I’ll be more than happy to skip reading the manga, playing the visual novel or reading the light novel. In that respect, yes, I’m more of an anime person. For readers who have been following this blog for a long time would come to realize this. After all, I mentioned it several times.

So, for me to transition from the anime to actually reading manga takes a lot of work. At least, the anime must do the original work justice. This means what was translated into an anime isn’t too far off the original work. Majority of the characteristics are still there and whatever emotions are properly conveyed through animated work.

As I found myself following quite a number of sports anime this season, I can’t help but to take a step back and wonder why I like sports and competitive game anime. Over the seven years of me watching anime, I’ve watched many sports anime such as Bamboo Blade, Slam Dunk, Chihayafuru, Kuroko no Basuke, Free! etc.

My annual best anime post has returned! Strangely though, I have hard time writing this post. It’s almost as if the anime this year is not that memorable. That’s not a good sign. Granted, I was drifting in and out of what I call the “anime mode” (indulging in anime) due to work-related projects. Still, it shouldn’t be hard to recall a good anime right? Right??

Anyway, the list below consists of anime completed this year. So it means, the anime could’ve started during Autumn 2011 but completed Winter 2012.

Chihaya Ayase is a frank and ebullient girl who becomes fascinated by the obscure world of competitive karuta, a card game based on Japanese poetry. Introduced to the aggressive style of the game by a quiet and thoughtful elementary school classmate named Arata Wataya, the two quickly become close friends. They start playing as a group with Taichi Mashima, Chihaya’s smart and athletic childhood friend, until they have to part ways during their middle school years due to several circumstances. As their high school life begins, they meet once again.

– AnimeNewsNetwork

Just before today, Bamboo Blade was my favorite sports anime because I like the atmosphere of the series and that the characters were all so cute and loveable. It introduced me to Kendo and made me like the sports for all the “Men!” and “Kote!” and other shouts. When Chihayafuru came into the picture last Fall, I knew instinctively at the first episode that I’m gonna love this series even more. Guess what. I was right. Today, my dear readers, Chihayafuru is my favorite sports anime.

Omg. Omg. OMG! There are just soooooooo many good titles this coming fall. It’s really, REALLY hard to decide which should stay on my watch list while which I should watch later after collecting more episodes. I’m interested in six titles so far and I know I can’t keep up with all of them every week so I need to do some serious prioritizing. Bear in mind, besides the new titles, I still have Mawaru Penguindrum that I will follow closely during the fall season. Plus my usual shōnen titles….ugh! Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Before I proceed and in case you haven’t seen the list, do check it out here at neregate.com. I’m telling you, loads of goodies coming this fall.